Ladies' Night on Valentine's Day
by TheMobRapper
Summary: On Valentine's Day night, love and death is in the air at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. When what begins as a simple poker night at Mike's house and some overtime at Freddy's escalates to a young man's first night on the job, a break-in, and dastardly animatronics hitting the dance floor with their beloveds, Ladies' Night is sure to turn out to be the best Valentine's Day!
1. Chapter 1

**Hello there, FanFiction community! Welcome to my first-ever upload: Ladies' Night on Valentine's Day! Interesting fact: this is the very first story I ever completed, and that was a year ago. I started writing fiction—FNaF, of course—a little more than a year ago, and this was the first story I finished. Now be warned, because this was also the first romance I ever wrote, and while I didn't think it was that bad, there are some parts of this story that make me physically cringe at how cliche it is. I edited a lot of it as I typed it up (I write my stories in my beloved composition notebooks) and now it is MUCH better than it was, but to keep both the plot and the humor, I had to keep some cringey parts, so I'll just apologize for that now. I hope you enjoy my story, and please review it and, more importantly, constructively criticize it, because I need it! My beta reader is my younger brother, aged 13, and I love him, but he always says, when I ask him for criticism, "It's better than what I could ever write!" So it isn't very . . . critical. So if you guys find something that ticks you off. let me know so I can learn and write better stories for both you all and me. Now, onward to the story!**

* * *

"You know what, fine! But I'm being paid extra for this, and I expect a raise for the rest of my time—what? You're kidding! Then in that case, after tonight I'm done. No. No, not 'just one more night,' I said I'm quitting after this! Get some other idiot to work for minimum wage!" Jeremy Fitzgerald angrily hung up his cell phone. The nerve of his boss! Completely out of the blue he asks—no, _tells_ —him to work the weekend, _on a holiday!_

 _Give me some warning, I'd be better with it,_ he thought, _and a decent overtime bonus. But I only have three hours until I have to be at the pizzeria!_

Cursing under his breath, the young man dialed up his friend Mike Schmidt.

"Hey Jerry. We still on tonight or what?" The pair (along with the occasional other Freddy Fazbears' employee that cared to stay up late) typically met up Saturday nights to play pool and cards at Mike's house, staying up as late as five or six AM. Although retired from his original job as night guard at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, the career had left Mike a permanent night owl, and Jeremy had no problem with staying up late on the weekend. Unless, of course, his boss unexpectedly called him in to work the weekend. This, fortunately, was not at all often.

"Yeah, probably," Jeremy said, a hint of disgruntlement in his tone. "But I'll have to leave real early, like around 11:30-ish or something."

Mike groaned. "Boss got you going in tonight? Ugh."

"Yeah. He did promise a raise, but it sure isn't much."

"Let me guess. A whole extra eight cents an hour? That's what my overtime bonus was when I worked for Fazbear's."

Jeremy quickly did the math in his head. "Just about that, yes. Tonight's my last night, though; I told my boss I quit after this shift."

"Probably the smartest decision you'll make. Aw, you know, now I have to spend tonight robbing Fritz while blindfolded."

Fritz Smith was the day guard at the pizzeria, as well as Jeremy's substitute when Jeremy was sick. It wouldn't surprise him, though, if Fritz was switched to the night shift. The company seemed to deem the closed hours of the restaurant the ones that needed the most security.

"Sorry, man, but a guy's gotta make a living. At least you'll make yours tonight, too, just under better circumstances. I swear, Fritz is the worst bluffer I've ever seen. And he always bets so high, you'd think he was at a table in Vegas."

"Right? It's great. Speak of the devil, he's calling me now. Call you back?"

"Eh, if it's important. If not, I'll see you at ten." Jeremy hung up. The poor kid, Fritz. He was only eighteen years old, and a total wimp. He'd likely have a heart attack at the first sight of one of the malignant animatronics.

Jeremy sighed and pulled on his jacket. _Mike and I are going to have to teach the kid a bit before Monday,_ he thought as he headed out to grab a bite to eat.

* * *

After a hearty meal of hamburgers and French fries Jeremy returned to his cramped little apartment, settled down on the stained, torn couch shoved against the far wall, and fell into a rejuvenating nap in front of an old movie playing on his television. Some time later, he awoke from his rest and found the hour to be late. In a rush he showered, changed into his security uniform, emailed his resume to a few 'now hiring' companies, and hurriedly drove to Mike's house. Somehow he managed to turn the would-be thirty minute drive into a barely-legal twenty minute one. If he was going to work the weekend, then he'd make the most of the free time he had.

"Hey, kid. Come on in." Mike swung the door open all the way, allowing entry into his home. At age 43, the late watchman wore a patch of salt-and-pepper stubble across his sharp cheekbones, and his head had begun to show signs of balding, but his sky-blue eyes still held a mischievous, youthful look about them. "Fritz'll be another twenty minutes or so. Some work stuff, he said. Wasn't very specific. He sounded pretty excited, actually. Go figure."

As the two made their way through the house, Mike stopped in the dining room and nodded towards the kitchen, where delicious smells wafted from, teasing their nostrils. "Kelly's baking Smith and I some goodies to enjoy while you spend the night fighting for your life. Sweet deal, huh?"

Mike's wife popped her head into view. "Some'un say mah name? Aw, evenin', Jerry! 'Course mah honey's gunna share with ya." The Southern blonde gave her husband a warning look. " _Right,_ Mikey?"

"Aw, dear, do I have to?" Mike asked teasingly. "It'd be such a shame if he died and took your five-star brownies to the grave where no one could enjoy them."

 _"Michael!"_ The warning look instantaneously upped into a terrifying glare; one that could make death itself shrink away in cowardice. The poor man winced and dropped his gaze to the floor. "Yes, dear?" he asked quietly.

Kelly's anger seemed to fill the room, giving both male occupants a feeling similar to one a naughty child facing his condemnatory father might have.

"That's jes' a plain rude thing t' say! You of all people know that Jerry might very well die t'night! Uh, shoot, that ain't what I meant—"

Jeremy smiled a little, mentally attempting to push the subtle fear of the woman away. "No, I understand. It's fine."

But Kelly came over, clasped his hand in hers, and gave him a remorseful look. "No, honey, it ain't fine. It's jes' downright awful that yer job even exists, an' now they have ya workin' holidays? Ain't nothing more wrong 'n that! I know it ain't much, but I made a plate of brownies fer ya to take t'night." She sent a dark glance in her husband's direction. "Only fer ya."

Mike's jaw dropped. "Now, dear, let's be sensible—"

"Sensible? Ah'm showin' th' boy a little kindness, jes' like ah did t' you, when we firs' met! An' if you want t' talk 'bout sensibility, then how come yer jokin' 'bout yer best buddy potentially dyin' while you sit here an' play poker? You are in no place to speak on sensibility, Michael James Schmidt. Now why don't ya apologize an' go gamble yerselves dry?" She gave Jeremy a quick hug and sashayed back into the kitchen.

The two men stood in mild shock. "Your wife is rather . . . _strong_ on certain subjects."

Mike gave a weak chuckle. "You've got that right. Heh, I should tell you about the time this dude from our insurance company paid us a visit 'cause our payment was a day late—"

"Ah kin hear you, Mikey, and I ain't hearin' no 'pology, either!" came Kelly's threatening caveat.

"Sorry, dear."

"Not t' me, ya doofus; t' Jerry! Sheesh, my sweetheart at times!"

"I heard that! And, uh . . . sorry, Jerry." Mike smirked. "You're blushing. She's mine, pal."

Jeremy looked away, silently cursing that embarrassing attribute of his. "Shut up, Schmidt. Let's go play some pool."

* * *

Two rounds later Mike was sweating bullets. The kid had gotten pret-ty good at pool. He was beginning to regret teaching him so well.

Jeremy propped himself up against the table and grinned at Mike. "A four and an eight left, Schmidt. Think you can get your—" he quickly took inventory of the remaining solids on the table—"six balls in first, Billiard Baron? I think not," he scoffed arrogantly.

Mike growled in response, knowing it was true but not admitting defeat just yet. He was about to shoot back a snarky reply when the basement door swung open, revealing Fritz Smith in a security uniform not unlike Jeremy's. "Hey, guys. So I actually have to leave in an hour or so, just an FYI." The teen glanced around and did a double take when he noticed Jeremy's attire. "Whoa, Jeremy. Where're you headed, a costume party?" He snickered, then noticed the others staring at him strangely. "What? My beard? Hey, it ain't much now, but—"

"Where are you going?" Jeremy asked.

"Uh, my job, later. At Fazbear's. My boss actually just promoted me to Jeremy's old position, as night guard. I still don't get why you quit, though, dude."

"But I have the shift tonight," Jeremy said, confused by this new information. "I figured you wouldn't start until Monday. Are you sure the boss said you'll start _tonight_?"

Fritz threw his hands up in annoyance. "For the love of—of course I'm sure! Why does everyone always assume I can't remember the simplest things? I'm 18! I'm not a kid anymore! I can do things by myself; including remembering things like dates and times and directions and—"

"Now, Fritz, we don't think that," Mike said in a calming voice, attempting to diffuse the situation.

"No, of course not," Jeremy lied, "but the boss told me that tonight would be my last shift—"

"The boss told _me_ that you quit, and that I was replacing you! You're done! This is _my_ job now!"

"Well, yeah, but I said that I had the shift tonight—"

" _No, no, no!_ You quit! That means that you don't get to choose when your last day is! You're _done!"_

Jeremy and Mike shared a glance, both of them still bewildered by the sudden turn of events. On one hand Jeremy was irritated that his ex-boss had changed the arrangements without letting him know, but on the other he was relieved he actually didn't have to work over the holiday weekend for a measly extra fifty cents. Sure, the holiday was only Valentine's Day, but a holiday's a holiday. And a holiday means a break; either that, or a decent bonus. I.e., more than two quarters.

"Okay," he said, letting out a frustrated breath. Fritz was making such a fuss over nothing, and it was getting on his nerves, so he figured he ought to just roll with what was going on and keep the peace. "Sure. Whatever. You go into work tonight. I'll stay here and hang with Mike. We're both happy. Cool. Now let's just start up a round of Blackjack or something instead of sitting here arguing. Sound good?"

Fritz exhaled as well. "Yeah, sure, I don't care."

Mike flashed a toothy grin. "You better hope you get some good paychecks, because I've been practicing some new card strategies with my old man, and he says I could break the president's own bank. Ready to lighten your wallets, chumps?"

"In your dreams, Schmidt!" Jeremy laughed as he withdrew his billfold from his pocket. "I've been rethinking my betting tactics, and I think I'm ready to start putting only enough on the table."

The two turned to face Fritz, who fell into his assigned metal folding chair in front of the poker table and flashed both men an angry look, his face reddening. "Oh, I see. Let's all target the youngest guy at the table, who also happens to be the worst and least-experienced player, and the poorest one, too! You know. Sometimes I wonder if you only invite me here so that you can empty out my pockets!"

Mike rolled his eyes and rubbed his temples. "Actually, kid, that's not very far from the truth; though that's not my motivation for inviting you. Actually, that's why I invite everyone."

"That's kind of the point of poker," Jeremy threw in. "You win some, you lose some. Practice makes perfect."

A loud thump made the two ex-guards start. "That's what you always say, but I never get any practice! You two always just steal my money right away!" The teen slammed his fist down again. "You guys are just like everyone else: always taking advantage of me!"

"Fritz, we aren't—"

"Yes you are! I don't care what you say, it's still true and you know it, so don't even try to tell me I'm wrong!"

"Fritz, it's just a game, man. You don't have to play, you know."

"It's not just poker, it's everything! Every single thing I do, you always have something against it, or want to make it more difficult for me! You're always looking to benefit yourselves! WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!"

A soft, steady thudding suddenly appeared from the basement stairs, and the door opened again, revealing Kelly carrying a platter filled with freshly-baked pastries in one hand and a six pack of Pepsi in the other. The three males turned to face her, each one's face bearing a surprised and guilty expression, but the woman took no notice. "Goodness, ya'll men are louder 'n Grand pappy's rusty ol' '64 Dodge pickup when it blew a gasket! Oh, an' Jerry, real sorry, but if Fritz is goin' ta work t'night while you stay here then he takes those brownies ah promised ya. But ah've got more o' 'em right here, so don't you fret!"

* * *

Fritz sped through the dark, lonesome streets to the pizzeria, angrily tearing into the brownies Kelly had given him on his way out. Despite being irritated with the two ex-guards, he'd stayed with them to eat a bit, play some games, and ultimately kill the length of time until his first night shift.

"Shouldn't have, though," he muttered to himself. He had a habit of talking to himself when he was under stress. "Psh, and I thought I was broke before. Thanks a ton, guys. _Super_ helpful. Now my first paycheck won't even make it to the bank."

Sometimes he wished that he could meet up with Mike and Jeremy under different circumstances, where he didn't have to pay to play. At other times he wished he simply didn't know them at all. Sure, he could decide to stop meeting up with them, but he didn't want them to think him a sissy, not being able to take their teasing. Besides, these game nights were the closest thing to fun he ever got.

Even so, sometimes their crude humor really got on his nerves. Both older men often taunted him about being so poor. But Fritz was trying! Couldn't they see he was trying so hard? Couldn't they see that they were just making his situation worse? He just wished that they could realize that, when you're a tightwad, you can't help it when you're stuck living in your older brother's attic! You can't help it when you're stuck driving a beat-up 1990 Honda Civic with no air conditioning and a cracked windshield! Heck, you can't even help it when you're stuck working five part-time, minimum wage jobs!

"Yet every week, they gang up and rob who? Me! Mike's friggin' rich: take his money, Jeremy! _Not mine!_ " In his fit Fritz accidentally ran a red light, causing him to pale and grip the steering wheel so hard his knuckles whitened. "No one saw that . . ."

* * *

Inside of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, Toy Bonnie (AKA TB) was _bored_. Jeremy wasn't due in for another twenty minutes, and the party wouldn't start until the human arrived.

Toy Freddy was sitting in the entrance hall with TB, but his mind was elsewhere. "I can't believe she said yes . . . The prettiest one . . . I wonder if she feels the same way about me as I do her . . ."

TB rolled his emerald green eyes—both at the question and the bear himself. The bear had been rambling on in a dreamy state for a few days now, and it was getting ridiculous. TB just couldn't understand it. What was so great about love? All it did was turn you into some stupid lunatic willing to do anything for a pretty girl and end up breaking your heart after some time. Single life all the way, that was his motto. But hey, to each his own, right? "Fred, of course Toy Chica likes you back! She's made it very clear to everyone that she likes you. Now can you please just quit babbling?"

"Yes, yes, whatever you say, TB," came the absentminded reply. "Mmmm, Toy Chi . . . Even her name is beautiful . . ."

The blue rabbit groaned, threw one last wistful glance out the window facing the parking lot, and rushed off into the depths of the dark pizzeria.

* * *

Toy Chi leaned back in the cushioned chair and lazily eyed the clock hanging on the dirty metal office wall. 11:43. She moaned and sat up. Toy Freddy had said that the party would start when Jeremy Fitzgerald arrived and the dance wouldn't start until 12:30. She moaned again. Although it was obvious that she and the bear were in love, Toy Freddy only really expressed his love during the holidays, most likely because he was so busy all the other nights seeking out the night guards. Most nights the animatronics all tried to stuff the guard into a spare animatronic suit, but during holidays they were rewarded for their skill and accepted into the animatronics' holiday celebrations.

Secretly Mangle and her liked Jeremy, but Toy Freddy didn't approve of actual relationships with the humans. Which made some sense, as the guards typically never lasted a week or two until they finally were caught or quit, but that didn't mean that the animatronics couldn't socially associate themselves with them did it? It was a good question, but Toy Freddy never seemed to have the time to actually have the time to answer. The usual response was a hasty "Because, it's for the best," or, "Just trust me on this one."

Ah, well. What could you do?

Toy Chi decided to touch up her makeup to pass the time, but as she reached for the small plastic case she heard static coming from the hallway. Looking up, she smiled in recognition and called out, "Hi, Mangle! How's it going?"

The battered white vixen dropped down from the roof and scurried into the office. "Fine, thanks! Looking forward to the dance?"

"What gives you that idea?"

Mangle laughed "Girl, this is the seventh time in forty-five minutes you've been messing with your pretty face! Not to mention all you've been talking about lately is Toy Freddy and the dance."

The chicken giggled sheepishly, knowing her friend spoke the truth. "Yeah, well, can you blame me? I mean, this is one of the rare times Freddy ever spends time with me and says 'I love you' to me."

"Oh, I don't blame you, sweetie. Frankly, I'm surprised you aren't spying on old Lover-Bear again, or vice versa."

Toy Chi returned to her makeup. "Mangle, we don't talk about that, remember? If TB finds out, then you'll find out what—hey, is there ever two messages on the phone in here?"

For indeed, the device's LCD flashed two voicemails.

Mangle looked puzzled. "I don't think so, the humans don't use this one for anything except for teaching the guards. Play the message."

"But we aren't supposed to mess with the human's stuff, remember?"

"Toy Freddy isn't here, and he won't find out. Play it."

"I don't know, I think we should respect—"

Mangle suddenly reached over and pressed the 'play' button.

"Well, okay, I guess that works too, then," Toy Chi mumbled as the voicemail began to play.

" _Hello, hello, uh, what on earth are you—_ "

"Not that one."

" _Uh. h-hey Boss, it's Fritz Smith. You know, Fitzgerald's replacement? Yeah, so he said that his last night was tonight. I told him that, you know, since he was done, he was just done, but I'm a little confused. Are you sure you wanted—I-I mean, I'm not saying you messed up or anything, of course not—but did you really mean for me to come in tonight? If I don't hear back from you I'll still come in, but some verification would be cool. Thanks, man, you're the best._ "

"Oh, no . . ."

Toy Chi looked up at her friend, startled by her unexpected reaction. "What is it?"

Mangle looked crestfallen and hung her head. "Well . . . I . . . fell in love with Jeremy. And he fell in love with me too. We were planning on being each other's valentines and announcing it during the dance, but now . . ." The heartbroken vixen couldn't finish.

Toy Chi felt horrible for her friend. She lay a sympathetic metal hand on her bare endoskeleton arm. "I'm sorry, sweetheart." But she suddenly brightened as she thought of something. "I know! Let's check and see where Jeremy's going!" With a grin she spun office chair around and, opening up the tall steel filing cabinet behind the desk, she began to rifle through files.

Barely lifting her head to watch, Mangle asked dully, "Going? What do you mean 'going?' Going where?"

"That Fritz guy said he was _replacing_ Jeremy, remember? Maybe they're just switching positions here! I'm pretty sure I recognize that name, Fritz." A few moments later she gave a victorious cry and held up a single coffee-stained folder, labeled 'Fitzgerald.' "Look, Mangle! I found it!"

"You think that'll tell us where he's being moved to?" Mangle couldn't hide the slight excited hope in her voice.

"With luck, yes."

Toy Chi flipped open the folder and scanned its contents, page after page, but found nothing relevant until she turned to the last paper. She gasped at the words it bore, causing Mangle's gears to halt. "What? Wh-what is it?" she asked shakily, her voicebox catching.

The chicken couldn't look at her, feeling incredibly guilty for getting Mangle's hopes up. "Ah . . . This. I'm so sorry, Mangle." She held out the slip of pink paper.

"'Slip of termination?' What? Why would they fire him?" But her question was answered on the next line. "'Reason: _resignation?_ '" Mangle dropped the slip, her jaw slack. "He . . . resigned? But why? I thought he c-cared about me…"

A sudden flash of light swept across the room, drawing both bots' attention. A pair of headlights swung into the parking lot, visible through the small, grimy office window.

"The new night guard is here," Toy Chi said in a feeble attempt to lift Mangle's crushed spirit. "Tonight should be fun, huh?"

But her attempt was only met with a mournful silence.

* * *

TB ran back to the entrance hall. "Fred! Jerry's here! About time, you know?"

Toy Freddy hadn't moved from his previous position in one of the plastic seats meant for customers waiting to be served. "And then I'll flip her around, and—oh, uh, yeah, that's great, TB. Go find the girls, will you?"

"They're talking in the office. Like, talking, talking."

The bear frowned. "Talking, talking? Like, _talking,_ talking, or just talking, talking?"

" _Talking,_ talking for sure."

"Gotcha. We'll catch them on our way to the main room when Jeremy comes in. Ah, and I believe that's him now!"

With the declaration of jingling keys the entrance door swung open, and a slim figure slipped inside.

"Surprise, Jeremy! Happy Val—" A long, high-pitched scream cut them off, and the figure darted past the them, disappearing into the pizzeria.

"Uh, Fred?" TB asked, confused and startled by the sudden turn of events. "Since when does Jerry have orange hair?"

Toy Freddy glanced down the hall, then back at TB with the same expression of confusion, though a bit of amusement flickered across his round face. "I don't think that was Jeremy, bud. I think that we just made a really bad first impression on a new night guard. We'll give him a minute to recollect himself, and in the meantime you and I can go alert the girls to this . . . new development." He turned and ambled down the long hallway, apparently deep in thought. TB hopped uncertainly along beside him. The office wasn't far, but the eerie silence made the short distance feel like miles.

"Hey, Fred," TB said quietly, "I wonder what happened to the other guard, you know? I mean, it's not that I have anything against new guys—don't get me wrong, I love 'em—but still. That old one was pretty good—" Toy Freddy growled at this—"I know, I know, but he was, and both he and us knew it. So why wouldn't he show tonight?"

The stocky orange-brown bear shrugged as he determinedly marched onwards. "It is the weekend, not to mention a holiday. Humans don't like working on either type of day, for some reason, so maybe the management found a Saturday-Sunday night guard. Or who knows, maybe they fired him. Remember what old Freddy told us? About how one of their night guards were fired for _odor,_ and tampering with the animatronics, even though he didn't? Management fires the humans for even the smallest reasons, and Fitzgerald stank up that office, not to mention all of those times he went through the kitchen's food supply and the restaurant paperwork."

"Or maybe he quit," a bitter voice said, startling the pair. "Did that possibility ever cross your mind?"

TB couldn't hide his shock. "Quit? Why would he quit?"

Toy Chi had propped herself up against the wall of the office, her bright blue eyes downcast. "I don't know. Maybe to break poor Mangle's heart?"

Toy Freddy stiffened, his eyes going hard. The blue rabbit at his side felt uncomfortable, sensing the anger building inside of the bear. "Oh?" Toy Freddy asked sternly. "And why, exactly, is Mangle's heart broken over a lost guard?"

The animatronic chicken didn't back down, but returned the steely glare with one of her own, just as firm. "She loved him, if you must know. And Jeremy loved her back. Why? Do you have a problem with that?"

"As a matter of fact I do. You know quite well what I say about—"

Then she did something TB never imagined could even happen. In a moment, just the blink of an eye, Toy Chi was sitting atop the pinned-down Toy Freddy. TB gasped. "Chi! What are you—get off of him!"

"Scram, Bon!" came the angry response. "This doesn't concern you."

Not wanting to push the angry bird girl, TB slowly backed down the hall, glancing uneasily at his male friend, who simply gave him a tired look from the floor. "TB, if you aren't planning on getting this crazy featherball off of me then you might as well do as she says." So off TB ran, and Toy Freddy turned his attention to the upset chicken on top of him. "Go ahead, then. Tell me what's on your mind, and I'll set you straight."

"This wasn't just some guard, Freddy! Jeremy was different. He _cared_ about us."

"Chi, honey, they all say that. Technically, they're hired to care about us. It doesn't mean anything."

"I know, but Jeremy really did care about us! He loves this place—and us. Remember that one time, on his first night, when TB scared him and he screamed? He felt really bad about that. And you're his favorite—well, aside from Mangle, but that's different—out of all of us, even me! He was also really nice to us, as I'm sure you've noticed, and he fell in love with Mangle. The Mangle you basically disowned after those kids tore her apart? Yeah, now someone likes her again. She wasn't depressed. She was happy. Now look, listen!"

A soft wailing could be made out from the buzz of the lights.

"It's almost like you don't want her to be happy, only us, so you say no—no—no close relationships with humans. We understand the possible consequences of them, but we don't care, and it should be our choice. It isn't fair for you to make that a rule, it doesn't make any sen—"

"I MADE THAT RULE FOR A GOOD REASON!"

Toy Chi froze, stunned. Toy Freddy never raised his voice, at humans or animatronics alike. The animatronic chicken recovered quickly. "Why, then? It doesn't make any sense. Not to the rest of us, that is."

Toy Freddy sighed. "Let me tell you a story old Bonnie told me when we were first powered on . . .

"He told me that, long ago, there were six animatronics, at their old location. Him and the others, of course, but also a golden rabbit and bear. When they roamed around at night they attempted to stuff their night guard, same as us. But the gold bear wanted to befriend the guard, and after awhile they spent nearly every night together, the gold bear and the human, while the other animatronics, aside from the gold rabbit, who was deactivated, tried to kill the night guard, no matter how much the gold bear pleaded with them to stop. They didn't want to stop because the guard spread horrible rumors about them, and due to the rumors the management forced the animatronics to remain on their stage during the day. As they wanted to see and interact with the children again they spent their nights attempting to eliminate the guard, in turn eliminating the rumors and freeing them from the stage. The gold bear didn't seem to care and remained friendly with the guard anyways."

Toy Freddy noticed Mangle slowly creeping over to Toy Chi, who now sat on the floor opposite the bear. When Mangle saw him staring she turned on her heels and scurried back behind the corner to listen without being seen. "One night the gold bear stayed onstage longer than usual, and when he finally arrived at the office he found Bonnie leaving it—night guard in tow. But the gold bear was faster than Bonnie, and managed to stop Bonnie from stuffing the guard. However, the gold bear was furious with Bonnie. He fought with him, broke his legs, and went to find Foxy, Bonnie's close friend. Inside of Pirate's Cove he found Foxy, shut down and charging, and tried to short him out with water. Fortunately, Freddy had seen the gold bear enter the Cove and followed him, and stopped him from doing much damage, but not before Foxy had been wet a little. Freddy deactivated the gold bear, but the other humans arrived before he could fix Bonnie's legs. The humans found him and repaired him, but the gold bear wouldn't power on, and he was later scrapped.

"Later that day Foxy glitched in the middle of a performance, and he began to follow his original programming, which included the free roam protocol. But when one of the humans went to deactivate Foxy he panicked, shouting and struggling. The human couldn't hold onto him, though, and he tripped. Since he was shouting his mouth was, obviously, opening and closing, and an unfortunate child was just a little too close, and . . ."

Toy Chi gasped. "The Bite of 1987!" she breathed.

"Yes. And because both Foxy and the gold bear displayed signs of issues, the city figured it would only be a matter of time until Freddy, Chica, and Bonnie malfunctioned, possibly producing worse results than the Bite of '87, so they told the owners of the pizzeria to update their animatronics. But they couldn't afford the hefty price it'd take to do so, and that location was shut down, their animatronics brought here to be used as parts for us. Do you girls understand the rules now?"

Mangle had summoned the courage to seat herself a few feet behind Toy Chi, and she wore a contemplative expression now.

"Because the gold bear liked the night guard," Toy Chi said slowly, "he hated his family for trying to get their freedom back. And when they succeeded he hurt two of his family members, one of which killed a child later on due to his injuries, and then they lost their home because of his actions. I understand now, Freddy. I'm sorry—I didn't know." Toy Chi hadn't known nearly anything about their original counterparts until that moment. How awful, for them to have to had endured all of those unfortunate events that led to nothing but a slow and painful death! She immediately regretted all of those rude remarks and thoughts she'd ever made regarding the old 'bots.

Toy Freddy stood and nodded sympathetically. "It's all right; I'm sorry too. I should have told you my reasoning behind the rule so that it didn't feel quite so unfair. I also owe you, Mangle, an apology. I shouldn't have treated you the way I did. I'm sorry."

To the bear's great surprise the mangled vixen leapt onto his chest and hugged him. "I f-forgive you."

" _Awwwwwww!_ " TB slapped his hand against his mouth. He hadn't meant for that to slip out, but . . . it had. Mangle started and fell back, embarrassed. Toy Freddy only raised his eyebrows and gave a slight nod in his direction, then in Mangle's: _you and her?_

TB felt his circuits heat up and turned away. Fortunately Mangle didn't notice, although Toy Chi did and stifled a laugh behind a coughing fit.

Mangle threw her a strange look, as she was pretty sure that animatronics didn't actually cough, but she decided to not question it. She turned to Toy Freddy. "Erm—Freddy? So, uh…" It felt a little strange talking to the bear again; it'd been several months since he'd rejected her after some children had partially dismantled her. Toy Freddy had been disgusted at her for simply allowing kids, pathetic mini humans, to overpower and take advantage of her. Her actions—or, rather, lack of them— had been 'unwise, thoughtless, and injured the pride of being an animatronic—' the bear's own words.

But things were different between them now; Toy Freddy had apologized, she shouldn't be afraid to talk to him again. They'd been friends before, and they could again. Mangle looked up at him and began again. "If you don't mind my asking, why do we still hunt the night guards? It's not that I don't enjoy it, I just wonder why we do it."

Toy Freddy shrugged. "Keeping the tradition, I suppose you could say." He glanced behind him and made to leave. "You three, stay here. I'm going to see about the—"

"The party?" TB interrupted excitedly.

"—the night guard. Then we can party, m'kay? Why don't you all, ah, _partner up_ while I'm gone?" he said in a teasing tone, wiggling his eyebrows at TB and grinning like a child.

The females laughed as TB's face heated up. "I—we—wha—huh?" he spluttered. "Er—you—F-Freddy!" But the bear had already disappeared down the hall. TB sagged, but suddenly stood up straight when a tap on his back startled him. "M-Mangle?!" he exclaimed, whirling around to face her.

Mangle gave him a sly smile. "Hey, big guy. Heard you were looking for a partner for Valentine's Day."

TB groaned.

 **Author's Note:**

 **Well, here it finally is! Chapter One! Okay, a few things I want to say. One, I apologize to anyone that dislikes the nicknames I gave the characters. I personally don't care much for 'TB,' much less 'Toy Chi,' and I'm saying nothing against those of you who like those names! Just not my preference, okay? Of course you all are probably wondering, if you don't like it, then why don't you change it? Well, remember, I wrote this a year ago. I've read this story many times, and while I don't really like the nicknames, I grew to love these characters, and it'd feel like a sin to rename them now. You authors will probably understand what I mean. Two, I just want to comment on how much fun it was to write out Kelly's dialog! Just in case of you are offended by her slightly exaggerated southern drawl, I'm really sorry, while at the same time not sorry at all. And lastly, I just want to tell you all that while all of my characters are unique—and this applies to all of my stories—I put at least a tiny bit of myself into each and every one of them. It kind of helps me feel like I can understand them better, and in turn write them better. So many of you are learning bits about me and you don't even realize it, and those of you that do know me'll feel that happy little buzz of déjà vu if you catch that piece of the guy you know in the story. Maybe that makes sense, maybe it doesn't, I'm really just speaking for myself here. Anyway.  
** **What did you all think? I'm anxious to hear, so go ahead and let me know! The second chapter should be here in a few days' time, so don't fret if you enjoyed this story! I'm super hyped about posting this story online for all of you to see, and I hope some of you share my enthusiasm towards reading my work. I will see you all soon! (Figuratively, not actually see you, don't worry, I'm not some weird stalker or something.) Have an awesome day, and a great Valentine's Day! Tell someone close that you love them!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here it is, chapter 2! And holy smokes, guys, 100 views already? You all rock! In honor of this amazing turnout, a second chapter for you all! Enjoy!**

"I s-said, who's there!" Fritz half whispered, half yelled. He'd been hiding in a very dark room at the farthest end of the pizzeria, though he was wishing he'd found a different—brighter—place to hide. This one was creepy: filled with strange dark stains, animatronic parts—and something alive. But as much as Fritz wanted to leave, he knew that those animatronics were looking for him, and that he needed to hide, even if he had to share a hiding place with a mouse, or some left-behind kid, or—

An animatronic. Suddenly a large metal hand clamped onto Fritz' shoulder, causing the teen to scream and leap forwards, out of the animatronic's grasp. He tried to flee the room, but he tripped over a lone endoskeleton spine and went crashing to the floor. "Wh-what—who are you?" he gasped, squinting to see which animatronic it was. Surely they couldn't have discovered his hiding place yet. "What are you doing here?"

"Gee, I don't know," came the static-y and sarcastic response. "I mean, it's not like-like-like this is my _home_. I'm B-B-B-Bonnie. And you are?"

Fritz swallowed. "I-I'm Fritz. Are you . . . the _old_ Bonnie?"

Bonnie was quiet for a moment. "Uh, yeah? Wow, not many ki-kids kids remember me. You just made my day, litt-litt-little buddy! So what brings you back here? I heard you-you-you young ones weren't allowed back here."

Fritz slowly got to his trembling feet, keeping a wary eye on the rabbit. Or rather, the rabbit's silhouette. "I'm n-not a kid. I'm the night guard, actually—"

But he stopped, for at this Bonnie's eyes, which had been previously unlit, now glowed as two bright red pinpricks. The soft light illuminated the the space around Bonnie, revealing his horrendous lack of a face. Only a web of wires remained, hanging off of the remainder of the rabbit's skull, as well as the two red dots of his eyes. It gave him a malevolent and ghostly aura, and shivers of fear began to ripple uncontrollably all throughout Fritz' body.

"Night guard, huh? Hmm. My favorite. I suppose it's after hours, then. Humans aren't allowed after closing time, Fritz, you should know that. The pizzeria is ours at night. So now, since you're staying with us tonight, we get to play a game with you."

A dirty yellow chicken sat up from its place against the far wall. "Yes we do! Right, Freddy?"

The big bear appeared next to it. "Yes indeed, Chica. Are you ready, human?"

To top it all off a tattered red fox leapt up from behind the large metal workbench sitting in the middle of the room, landing next to Bonnie. "Arrr, th' lad be speechless!" it said in a thick Irish accent. It brandished a pointy steel hook, pointing it threateningly towards Fritz. "Go, night guard. Git t' th' office now, or we'll stuff yeh now. Ye got five seconds t' move yer rump—"

"Easy, Foxy. It's a holiday today, remember?"

Fritz strained to catch a glimpse of his savior, but could only make out a dim outline of him due to the insufficient lighting of the dark room.

Foxy waved his hook in the air in annoyance. "Bah! Holiday 'r not, I'll kill 'im. It ain't like th' others—" he jerked his head in the direction of the other original animatronics "—an' me really do anythin' fer holidays."

"Well, you're all welcome to participate in our celebrations, but you always turn us down. You can join us tonight if you'd like to. Now I need to speak with Fritz, so if you'll excuse us we'll be headed out." The figure held the exit door open and gestured for Fritz to follow him into the much-brighter hallway. As he entered the hall, Fritz finally got a full view of the savior.

"T-Toy Freddy! What d-d-do you want?"

The orange-brown bear raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me for saving your life. I suppose now is the best time for me to tell you that you're safe tonight. From me, that is."

"What? Why are you g-going to kill me?"

Toy Freddy shot him an annoyed glare. "Did you not hear what I just told you? I'm _not_."

Even through the wild fear burning in Fritz' eyes, a glint of sarcasm flickered. "Oh, well, _excuse_ me, why are you going to try and kill me all of the _other_ nights?!" He dropped his gaze to the floor in both fear and shame, then a moment later glanced back up at him. "Uh, a-and if it isn't pressing my luck, why not tonight?"

Toy Freddy looked over the teen at the mysteriously widening crack between the servicing room door and the wall. "We aren't going to stuff you tonight because it's Valentine's Day. As for future nights: long story. Let's just say we're honoring our predecessors. Now, what I came to tell you. As it's Valentine's Day, we're having a little celebration, consisting of a party, and also a dance. My girls' idea, but I can—"

"Wait, wait. _Your_ girls?"

"Well, yes, I like to think of it that way. I am the leader of our gang, and they look up to me, in a paternal kind of way. Do you think I shouldn't call myself the father figure?"

Despite his fear and the fact that he was facing a killer animatronic, Fritz smirked. "No, no, I see where you're coming from from that aspect of it. It does seem like you are the whole 'dad' of your group. But it isn't weird to you to be in a romance with someone you consider your daughter?"

"What? Romance? I— _It_ _is most certainly not a romance! How dare you, even thinking that a respectable animatronic such as I would partake in such an inappropriate thing as a romance!_ I'm merely spending some time with them and expressing my care for them! Do you ignorant humans consider even the smallest sign of affection an undying love for another?"

Fritz blinked. "Actually yeah, I guess we do. I-I mean, no, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean—"

Suddenly the service room door swung open completely, causing it to bang harshly against the wall, and Foxy came into view. "Toy Freddy! Me canna help but overhear some . . . rather irate speech from yeh, directed t' the guard, 'ere! If he ain't cooperatin' wit' ye, me 'n' me crew'd be more 'n happy t' take 'im offa yer hands!" The pirate fox shot Fritz a devilish toothy grin, causing the human to pale and turn away sharply.

Toy Freddy stared hard at Fritz, contemplating the offer, but eventually sighed. "No, thank you, Foxy. I'll keep your offer in mind, though, and I may very well change my mind, depending on how _he behaves in the future._ "

Foxy growled in annoyance and slammed the door shut again, the hallway echoing with metallic clangs as he stomped around in the servicing room. Fritz and Toy Freddy stood in silence for a few long seconds, until Fritz timidly spoke up. "Just s-so you know, romance isn't, um, i-it isn't generally considered inappropriate . . . It's t-totally fine if you love—"

"Don't even say it, because I don't," the bear said stubbornly. "Now may I continue with what I have been _trying_ to tell you?" He heaved an exaggerated sigh of relief when Fritz barely nodded his head. "Thank you. So we have a Valentine's Day dance. Mangle—that's Toy Foxy; we nicknamed her Mangle after children dismantled most of her body—she fell in love with our night guard." He spit out the last few words with blatant distaste.

"Me?" Fritz squeaked. "H-how? We've never even met before, how could she—"

"Not you! The other night guard, Jeremy Fitzgerald. But they'd planned on being partners for the dance, and now Jeremy's gone and Mangle needs a new partner. You get where I'm going here?"

"What? Whoa, no way! No, no, no, no, no. Ain't happening, pal. No thanks. I don't date animatronics. Plus, I have a job to do and a salary to earn, so I'm afraid I'll be busy all night. How about you dance with her? There. Perfect. Everyone's happy. Problem solved."

Toy Freddy looked away and rubbed his arm. "I, ah, I'm afraid that won't exactly work out very well. Toy Chica will be going with me. I mean, she wants me to take her. And a father just can't refuse his daughter something like that, right? Heh . . ."

As strong as the urge to tease the animatronic was, he fought it down quickly, as he didn't want to die just yet. He desperately racked his brain for another excuse. "B-but there's another one! That other Bonnie, the blue one! Remember him?"

"Trust me, I couldn't forget TB," Toy Freddy said with a roll of his eyes. "According to him, he doesn't want anyone as a valentine. Ever. He was very clear on that."

"You're giving _him_ a choice? He's your son, kind of, you can make him do whatever you want him to!"

"Yes, well, despite so I do owe him for favors in the past, and Mangle isn't keen on the prospect of dancing with him. They don't particularly care for each other. But he may not have a choice anyways—"

"But what about my job? I'm not allowed to leave the office at night unless I have to, and I can't watch the place if I'm stuck dancing with animatronics!"

"In that case you don't have a thing to worry about, Mr. Smith. We'll make sure you get some work in tonight. Like I said, though I don't think you were paying attention, TB may not have a choice. Mangle's dance partner will be determined via your testing tonight. The females refer to the process as 'Ladies' Night.'"

* * *

Jeremy Fitzgerald flashed his flashlight down the hall. Fortunately it turned up nothing but the silent emptiness that brought a mild sense of relief to his overworked mind. He reached over and flashed the ventilation lights, again relieved to find nothing. Keeping a wary eye down the empty hall he groped blindly around for his tablet and, straining his ears to make certain nothing snuck up on him he awoke the sleeping tablet and wound the music box to keep the Puppet at bay.

In party room one, Toy Chi was preparing to enter the ventilation shaft. "Sweetheart, please stay out of there," Jeremy groaned, making a mental note to keep an eye on that vent.

Party room three, besides the spooky paper plate figures, was empty.

Party room two was barren, save for the two tables and the large puddle that was never mopped up.

"AAUUUGH! Oh, ho ho, hoo boy. Hey, there, you . . ." Jeremy felt a little silly; he'd known that TB would be in the fourth party room, which was not at all unusual, yet it seemed the adorable blue face would never cease to give him a fright.

Suddenly a burst of garbled static made him drop the tablet, and he peered down the dark hallway before him. He tried to illuminate the sound's source with his flashlight, but the little device's battery life had seemingly expired. Jeremy's pulse spiked, adrenaline rushed throughout his body, and panic set in. He threw his beloved Freddy head upon his own, hoping to avoid the inevitable fate but knowing his chances of survival were few. He waited. His breathing came in short, ragged puffs. Nothing happened. No jumpscares, no screams, no yanking off the Freddy head. He tentatively removed the head, but was immediately met with a vixen's sharp teeth aimed at his forehead . . .

* * *

"Jerry? Man, what's up with you? Hellooo?"

Jeremy blinked a few times as his brain returned to reality from the daymare. "Uh sorry. I was just . . . thinking."

Mike smirked and crossed his arms across his chest. "Well, your _thinking_ is a little too deep for my taste. Just so you know, it's your turn; been your turn for a few minutes now. What's on your mind? Is it Fritz?"

"No," Jeremy said with a shake of his head. "Someone a little closer. I just realized how much I let her down tonight, and that I probably won't ever see her again. Hey, actually—do the animatronics at Freddy's, like, still think for themselves during the day? You know what I mean?"

Mike frowned. "Like, are they sentient? Yeah, of course they—" Shock spread across the older man's face as he slowly realized what Jeremy meant. "Whoa. What? Does this mean you actually did it? You went off and fell in love with a killer animatronic? How? Why? And which one? I always did find that new Chica kind of hot."

"You know, she doesn't really appreciate people talking about her like that. But you said that they do think for themselves—er, are sentient during the day?" He pictured Mangle's heartbroken face when she found not him but Fritz seated in the office

"That's what I said. Now answer my question: who? How? Why?"

"That sounds like three questions to me."

"Just answer them, smarty."

"Fine. Mangle and I—what?"

Mike's face bore a confused and surprised expression. "Mangle is that new Foxy, right? Toy Foxy?"

"Yes . . ."

"And she's an attraction. A take-apart-and-put-back-together one?"

"Mm-hm. What of it?"

"How can you stand her? She looks so creepy. I mean, she's literally just a jumbled metal skeleton with teeth and two heads!"

"She is more than that!" Jeremy said tightly, raising his voice a tad. "It's not like she wants to look that way, she _lets_ kids mess around with her, and inside she's an amazing person with a longing to be cared for!"

"Okay, okay, chill out, Jer. Last question: why her? Did a human female companion not appeal or what?"

"Well, not exactly, but—look, it's complicated. I'll just tell you how I met Mangle. Like, actually met her. So when I took the night watch job a few years ago, I had a girlfriend. Her name was Cecilia, remember her? I think you met her once, but I guess I never told you very much about her, or us. She and I got along well, but her parents didn't like the idea of her living with me because of my shabby, low-income job. They wouldn't let me propose to her, but they couldn't keep her from dating, so that's what we did. She was what kept me going while I worked. She encouraged me during the day, and sometimes she left messages on the office phone for me to listen to at night.

"But, as the weeks progressed, the animatronics became more and more aggressive and harder and harder to keep away, and I started getting even more exhausted than before. I started sleeping more and missing dates with Cecilia. Then, about six months ago, she told me we were through. Working at Freddy's made me so tired I could only take her out a few times a month, and I missed the majority of them. She loved me, but she wanted to settle down out-of-state, get married, and have kids. I was unable to fulfill any of her dreams, and I don't blame her for her decision and I never have, but it devastated me. Like I said, she was what got me through the nights, and without her support I didn't think I could even try to make it through that night of work. Fortunately the animatronics were being updated that day, so they'd been taken to the manufacturing plant right after closing. The Toys were taken, as well as Balloon Boy and the Marionette, and the old animatronics for parts or something, I don't really know. But they forgot Mangle, or maybe they left her on purpose; again, I don't know. All I know is that I figured that all of the animatronics were gone.

"During that shift, while I was sitting at my desk, Mangle came into the office, following her nightly routine. According to her, I looked up at her and I looked lifeless. She says I stared at her for a second, then put my head down on the desk and started sobbing. She says I told her that I didn't care anymore and to kill me fast. She couldn't do it. Instead she wrapped herself around me and comforted me. When the other animatronics came back she got them to leave me alone for a week or so, and she spent those nights with me. After that she started helping me get through my shifts, giving me little pointers and stuff like that. That's how I grew to love her, and her me."

Jeremy looked over at Mike, who had sat down in a beat-up old recliner with his head down.

After a few silent minutes of solemnity Mike looked over at Jeremy, his face red and puffy from crying. "Man," he croaked hoarsely, "you could'a warned me about the major feels, here!"

Holding back a chuckle, Jeremy gave a small smile. "Sorry."

But the older man shook his head. "No, Jerry, I am. I shouldn't have said all the stuff I did. If you don't mind my asking, why is tonight so important?"

"The animatronics celebrate holidays just like we do, and during holidays they aren't, ah, hostile, and they invite whoever's on the nightshift to join their celebrations. Tonight they're hosting a Valentine's dance, and I was going to be Mangle's partner."

Mike winced. "Ouch. Plus she's probably found out by now that you got fired—"

"How many times do I have to say it, I resigned!" He stopped and blinked as he realized something. "Uh, that—that sounds even worse, doesn't it?"

"Yep. In brutal honesty it sounds like you don't care about her at all, and you were setting her up the whole time." Mike stood and walked over to a filing cabinet. "You do realize that you're dead? Either Miss Foxy's bawling her eye out in sorrow, or plotting out her revenge."

"Man, now I feel even worse! When the pizzeria opens tomorrow maybe I can take her some flowers or something and explain."

Mike snorted and continued to rustle through the filing cabinet's drawers. "Yeah, nice plan, Romeo. That'll heal the heartbreak in an instant."

Jeremy shot him a double take. "I'll have you know that Mangle _loves_ flowers, Schmidt. And I suppose you have an even better idea for me to make things right with her?"

With a dull thud Mike shoved the drawers back into place, and he turned and held up two black ski masks, not unlike ones a burglar might wear. He grinned. "Dance with her?"

* * *

"NO, PLEASE NO! GO AWAY!" Fritz had taken Jeremy's and Mike's horror stories of the killer animatronics for granted, he now knew. He frantically flickered his light down the hall at the dark crimson figure standing at the other end of the hallway.

"Argh, fine," Foxy grumbled, holding up his hook and hand to shield his eyes. "But git that wretched flashlight outta me face!" He stomped off, the strident metallic clanging of his feet against the flooring wreaking havoc on Fritz' nerves.

Once he was certain the coast was clear he snatched up the tablet, wound the music box, and checked the vent cameras. Fortunately for him, they were both vacant. He switched over to the show stage camera, where he was concerned to find only a grumpy-looking TB. Where had Toy Freddy gone to? Worried, Fritz flipped through the entirety of the restaurant's cameras, searching for any sign of the bear.

He suddenly screamed when he discovered the old Freddy staring right into the camera located in the third party room. "Geez louise, Fazzy!" Fritz muttered once he'd remembered how to breathe again. "I-it's not very nice to scare people like that, you know." He frowned and looked closer at the bear's face, feeling little vibes of fear run through his spine at the sight. "Huh. Looks like you could use Foxy's eye patch, there!"

A soft snicker made him jump out of the office chair and drop the tablet. He gasped. Toy Freddy was in the office.

Fritz snatched up the spare Freddy head and threw it onto his head with such speed he surprised himself. But it seemed to make no difference for Toy Freddy, who simply stood in front of the desk and watched the teen in mild amusement.

"GO AWAY!" Fritz yelled in trepidation. "You said this thing would work on you too!"

Toy Freddy raised one of his eyebrows. "Yes, and I also told you I'd come and check on you halfway through your testing."

"What? You mean it's only three a.m.?" He looked at the clock hanging on the wall for confirmation and moaned. "I'm so gonna die tonight! Can you tell those old animatronics to take it easy a little? They're way too active, in my opinion."

"Nope. Even if I did it wouldn't make any difference, they don't particularly care for listening to me. I brought you another set of batteries for your flashlight, though." The bear tossed Fritz a small package of batteries, which he eagerly accepted.

"Oh, that's awesome! The ones I'm using are just about dead."

Toy Freddy rolled his eyes in annoyance. "That doesn't surprise me. New guards waste their power like you wouldn't believe. I'm not bringing you new batteries ever again, though, so be a little more conservative in the future. Well, I suppose I'll be headed off now. Your turn, girls!"

Fritz screwed the flashlight head back in place, threw the old batteries into the trash can, and gave the hallway a quick test-flash.

"ARRR!" Foxy yowled, taking Fritz completely off-guard and causing him to fall back into his seat. "Me eye! Land sakes, night guard!" Foxy turned and trudged back down the hall, cursing quietly.

"Y-you know, you really shouldn't talk like that, Foxy!" Fritz called after him. "This is a kids' restaurant, after all!"

"Shut it, bilge rat! I be retired, an' me language ain't none o' yer business!" Foxy shot him a menacing grin over his shoulder. "Have a fun time at Freddy Fazbear's, matey!" he said, one of the few pre-recorded lines of his that still remained in his system.

A weak smile appeared on Fritz' face, but it flickered away as he recalled the conversation he and Toy Freddy had right before his shift . . .

 **[Begin Flashback]**

"T-testing? Ladies' Night? What are you talking about?"

Toy Freddy glared at Fritz, obviously still peeved at him. "Goodness, you humans are so impatient! I'll explain in a moment. Anyway, the testing is much like any other night here, but with certain animatronics against you. In tonight's case, it will be the Ladies' Night testing. Here's how it works: since tonight is your first night, all of us will try to catch you until three a.m.. Then I'll check in with you, give you fresh batteries, and then all of us animatronics —excluding Mangle, old Chica, and Toy Chi—will return to our normal positions and remain there until six a.m., so you don't have to worry about us.

"Keep in mind, though, that the music box will still require winding, Balloon Boy may show up in your office, and the Shadow brothers and Golden Freddy are unrestricted, so be mindful of all of them. The object of the testing? You simply have to survive. If a Toy animatronic catches you, you will be Mangle's partner at the dance. If an original animatronic—Chica, as of tonight—catches you, TB will be partnered with Mangle. Now keep in mind that the old animatronics don't play by the rules, and they will stuff you if given the chance, so there's a little extra incentive for you."

Fritz stared expectantly at him. "What?"

Fritz threw his hands up. "Well? What if I win? Come on! You don't expect me to win? That's just harsh, man!"

Toy Freddy gave him a sour look. "If you win, you may sit in the office for the rest of the night without being bothered. Any questions?"

"Yeah. Why do I have to keep the music box going? What's the deal with that balloon kid? Oh, and who the heck is the Shadow brothers and Golden Freddy?"

Toy Freddy groaned.

 **[End Flashback]**

"W-what the—what's that?" A loud metallic banging sound was coming from somewhere, and it was getting louder, but Fritz couldn't identify or locate the sound.

As he looked around he heard a giggle very similar to the one he'd heard when Toy Freddy had entered the office. "Toy Freddy, y-you said only the girls could come out!"

The giggling upped itself to maniacal laughter, and it was making Fritz very uneasy. "No, wait! You're B-B-Balloon Boy, right?"

"Nope! Guess again, silly!" The voice sounded like it belonged to a young girl, it was so high-pitched. Fritz whirled around to face the owner of the voice, only to find a black figure with solid white eyes and teeth. It somewhat resembled TB, but was larger in size, had no buckteeth, and was also hovering a foot off of the ground. It laughed again, presumably at Fritz' astonished expression. "I'm Shadow Bonnie, silly! You look funny. Are you Mister Fritz?" Shadow Bonnie looked around suspiciously, then leaned closer to Fritz and lowered its voice. "If you are, I'm supposed to spy on you and distract you for Miss Chica and Miss Toy Chi and Miss Mangle, but it was actually Captain Foxy that told me to spy on you and distract you for them. Plus, you know that banging sound? That's Miss Chica. She's coming through that vent riiiiiiiight there, see it? Yup, that's the one! Oh, and there she is now! Hi, Miss Chica! Captain Foxy told me to spy on and distract Mister Fritz for you! Am I doing a good job, or what? I'll bet that he hasn't even noticed you yet! Right, Mister Fritz? You haven't even seen her yet?"

Fritz, who stood ramrod straight and was pale as a sheet, stared at the sheepish-looking Chica crouched in the vent for a moment, then tentatively reached over and vigorously pressed the vent light button.

Chica sighed. "Okay, okay, I'm goin'. It was worth a shot, though, wasn't it? Abbey, maybe you should just stay back in the parts and service room, or something. I appreciate your help, but tell Foxy that it's the girls' night, and girls' night only."

The black bunny giggled again. "Okay, Miss Chica, I'll tell him! See ya later! Bye, Mister Fritz!" And with a magical pop, he disappeared.

"Uh, Ch-Chica?" Fritz stuttered to the chicken, who was beginning her trek back down the vent.

Chica stopped and turned to face him, surprised by the fact that he'd spoken to her. "Yes?"

Fritz gulped and eyed the spare Freddy head, but figured he was safe. He made sure, however, that it was within arm's reach. "Why did y-you call that thing—er, Shadow B-Bonnie—why did you call him Abbey?"

"Just our nickname for him. I don't recall who exactly gave it to him, but it's stuck."

"But he's a dude! Why would he h-have a girl name as a nickname?"

Chica shrugged the best she could, sitting in the vent and all. "I dunno. Bonnie is a girl name, isn't it? But friendly bit of advice: don't say anything about that in front of him, unless you want to really, really hurt."

"Oh—um—okay, uh, tha-thanks for that, I'll keep that in mind. Y-you can leave now."

Fritz waited until he heard no more banging, indicating that Chica had left the vent, and until his heart rate had fallen back down to a healthier pace, then he snatched up the tablet and checked around the restaurant. Fortunately the party rooms were void of animatronics, Chica was chatting with the other original animatronics in the parts and service room, and he found no signs of anyone in the main room. He was startled to find both Toy Chi and Mangle in the main hall, though, and most likely headed in his direction. It appeared that Mangle was fiddling with something off-camera, but what it could've been stumped Fritz. He quickly went and wound the music box, confirmed that Chica was still in parts and service, and checked on the main hall camera again. Now Toy Chi was gone, and Mangle was holding up a pink construction paper heart with text that read 'BE MINE.'

Fritz felt heat creeping up his neck and he quickly switched his camera view. Did Mangle really like him, or was she just desperate for a Valentine? Surely it was the latter; she knew next to nothing about him! Sure, she looked a little cute, but Fritz certainly didn't love her. Another possibility that crossed his mind was that the note was a death threat, but he preferred to not think about it that way. He was under enough stress.

A flash of movement drew his attention back to the camera feed, and he activated the camera's light. On the screen, Chica whirled around, surprised by the sudden illumination, and in the process she knocked one of the paper plate figures off of the wall behind her. It appeared she was trying to wave at him, but, due to her locked-up arm servos, she merely wiggled her arm a little. Fritz started to wave back, then remembered that only he could see her and not the other way around. Not to mention she was on her way to brutally murder him. Making a mental note to keep an eye on her, he began to flip through the other cameras, searching for the other animatronics.

"Whoa," Fritz laughed. "Caught you, Fredster!" He'd randomly switched to the show stage camera, where he discovered Toy Freddy passionately kissing Toy Chi. "You don't love her, she's only your daughter, that makes sense."

TB, who looked rather uncomfortable, noticed that the camera was online and awkwardly tapped on the bear's shoulder. Gesturing at the camera he said something to him, but unfortunately the camera had no audio function, so the words spoken were unknown. Angrily Toy Freddy turned to face the camera, glared into it, drew back his fist, and . . . static. "Oh, I am soooo busted for that. Thank you very much, you stupid robot. That's coming out of my salary for sure!"

Fritz glanced around the pizzeria and found the old Foxy and Bonnie having a very energetic conversation, Chica was trying in vain to replace the paper plate figure she'd knocked down, and Mangle was entering one of the vents again. He groaned and proceeded to don the spare Freddy head, completely oblivious to the two masked figures outside that were preparing to break in . . .

* * *

"Mike, are you sure about this?" Jeremy glanced around the dark, empty parking lot uncertainly. "If Fritz sees us he'll call the cops for sure, not to mention the animatronics are rogue right now. It's—"

"I know what time it is, Jerry!" Mike snapped. "Fritz isn't going to catch us, and the animatronics aren't rogue, remember? It's a holiday?"

"Yeah, about that . . ."

Mike turned around and grabbed Jeremy by the shoulders. "Oh no. What is it, Jerry? What did you forget?"

Jeremy shoved the older man away from him. "Uh, well, you know the old animatronics that are used for parts? Yeah, so they, um—they don't exactly—they do still try to kill people after closing, regardless of the date. Sorry, I guess I kinda forgot about that."

Mike was silent for a moment, processing the new information. After a few condemning moments he said, "Well, I suppose all we can do is hope that luck is on our side, and that my extreme killer-robot-avoiding skills are still as sharp as ever. And if you really do remember where all of the cameras are, then we should be okay. After all, we do just have to find Fritz, explain why we're there, and it'll all work out fine." He pointed up at a small window several feet above the ground. "Look, that window looks big enough for me to get through. Give me a boost."

* * *

"Wha—oh, crap!" Fritz looked around in horror. Toy Chi in the left vent, Chica in the right one, and Mangle dangled from the ceiling of the main hall. He was surrounded by death. Well, unless one of the Toys got him first, which was most definitely preferable. Better his pride die than he himself. Or wait—the Freddy head! He could preserve both his body and his dignity! There couldn't be a better option, in Fritz' opinion. He tossed the mask on and angled his body as to see what time it was, but something yellow was obstructing his vision. Something yellow—and big.

Fritz swallowed hard and slowly removed the Freddy head with quivering hands, his heart pounding wildly in his chest. Chica towered over him, a huge grin on her face. "Hello, there."

"Y-you win." Fritz hung his head in defeat, nothing but pictures of what his death might be like running through his brain. "I g-guess that I was b-bound to lose sooner or later."

Chica offered him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Yeah, well, if it's any comfort at all, you did a pretty good job, for a new guy. But we original animatronics don't count it a win until you've been stuffed. Not that I think you'll escape, of course, it just makes more sense that way."

Confused, Fritz stole a glance up at the giant murderous bird. "But what i-if I escape before you can s-stuff me? I mean, that possibility doesn't c-concern you at all?"

Chica shrugged nonchalantly. "You can't run or hide from us here, and you're locked inside until the janitor arrives at six. I'd say we'd be bound to find you again sooner or later. Now stand up so—"

But she never finished her sentence, for she was interrupted by a resonating robotic cry: "INTRUDER ALERT. INTRUDER ALERT. UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY. INTRUDER ALERT."

And if Fritz hadn't been scared out of his wits already.

* * *

"Mike?" Jeremy called in a hushed call, pressing his face against the side of the building. "What's going on?"

Mike's reply was muffled through the concrete and brick separating the two men. "Jerry, I just learned the hard way that that window I just went through leads to the parts and service room. I literally landed on top of Freddy, and now Bonnie is screaming my presence to the entire world. Dude. He has no face! It's friggin' creepy!"

In spite the circumstances, Jeremy couldn't hold back a lopsided grin. Mike somehow managed to make even the scariest situation a bit humorous. "Sit tight; I'm on my way. Try to distract them, that's the best shot to survival you have." Indeed, on the rare night that Jeremy slipped up and found one of the old animatronics with him in the office, he avoided the imminent death they brought him simply by keeping them talking until his shift was over. It was nearly impossible to strike up social chit-chat, but a stronger subject, like how unfairly they were treated, or how sneaky they'd been and that they'd done a magnificent job, absorbed their attention easily.

Jeremy hurried over to his car, jumped inside, and pulled it up right alongside the building, and directly below the window. He clambered out and onto the roof of the car, and with a second's hesitation he dove through the window to join his friend. He narrowly missed landing on top of Mike, and plopped down on the dirty tile only inches from him. The sudden entrance of the new arrival caught Freddy off-guard, and he opened his mouth to alert the rest of the pizzeria's occupancy, but no sound was emitted.

"Kicked out his voice-box in my way down," Mike stated matter-of-factly with no regret in his voice.

"That's a plus. Where are the other animatronics?"

Suddenly a sharp steel hook wrapped around his neck and jerked him backwards onto his hind end, and a furry red animatronic arm held him tight. "Righ' behind yeh, boyo. Righ' behind yeh."

 **Author's Note**

 **AND HERE IT IS! Another day, another chapter, and here you awesome people are! I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you all are excited about the final chapter that should be up in a few days' time. I know I sure am! See you all soon, and thanks again!**

 **ALSO: special shout-out to TMNTRAPHFANGIRL1! Thank you kindly for your review!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So sorry on the time it took to finish this! I've been pretty busy, and kind of tired, and—**

 ***nonexistent side of me slaps me in the face***

 **STOP WITH THE EXCUSES, NO ONE CARES AND EVERYONE KNOWS YOU'VE JUST BEEN PROCRASTINATING! NOW ALL OF YOU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY STAND THIS WHINER TO READ HIS MEDIOCRE STORIES, DON'T LOOK AT THIS MAN AND PLEASE CONTINUE ONTO THE CONCLUSION OF THIS STORY!**

Fritz and Chica both looked at each other in surprise, then alarm as they came to register the warning.

"Oh no . . ."

Chica looked at him, looking sick and very nervous. "Um, okay, so new deal: you keep us all safe and catch this intruder, and I'll give you a second chance. Sound fair?"

With absolutely no vacillation Fritz nodded, his pale face even paler, nearly translucent in appearance.

At that Chica turned and waddled brusquely down the hallway. "Gotta find the other girls and warn them . . ."

Once he was certain she was gone (yes, he knew what she'd promised, but he still wanted to take no risks, in case this was all some clever ploy invented by the animatronics) Fritz grabbed the tablet and began searching for the intruder. He found the female animatronics crawling underneath the tables in the party rooms. At least they wouldn't bother him for a while, and at the same time decrease their chances of running into the intruders. _Definitely a plus_ , Fritz thought in the back of his mind. In the game room, Balloon Boy was attempting to hide in one of the large present boxes standing around the area. Fritz couldn't help but smile in amusement. The only part of the little animatronic that was visible was his little legs, which were flailing wildly from the opening of the box.

He finally found the perpetrators, two masked men inside of the parts and service room, and they were being held in place by Freddy and Foxy. He'd have to remember to thank them later. He pried his phone from his pocket and dialed in three digits. "Hello, police? Freddy Fazbear's Pizza is being broken into."

As he had been firmly instructed to remain in the office, Fritz sat tight, watching everything play out through the tablet from his chair. Inside parts and service he observed the intruders being interrogated by Bonnie, who, despite the lack of audio, seemed furious. He was gesturing wildly with his remaining arm, and stalking back and forth, sometimes turning his head to glare at the intruders, sometimes staring down at the floor as a father disappointed in his son may do. Occasionally Fritz could hear the rabbit screaming out a livid static-filled scolding, but the exact words spoken were hidden behind the buzzing of the lights and the hum emitted from the thick cables strung about the building.

Suddenly Bonnie approached one of the men and jerked off his mask. _Wait, is that Jeremy?_ Fritz thought in bewilderment. _What the heck is he doing here? And I'll bet the other dude is Mike, isn't it?_

His suspicion was confirmed when Bonnie turned and yanked off the other man's mask, and, judging by Mike's pained expression, a little hair came out as well. His thick mop of mocha-brown hair did need a trim, and now it was telling him so.

Fritz badly wanted to speak with him and Jeremy, ask them what they were doing at the pizzeria, tell them the police were on their way and that they needed to leave immediately, but then he'd get in trouble with both the cops and his employer. He needed to find out why his uninvited visitors had come, but he'd get himself killed, or worse, fired, before he made it all the way down to parts and service. Unless . . . maybe he could get the female animatronics to take him? He'd be safe, if they proved trustworthy. Deciding to take his chances, he gathered up a few paper clips and thumbtacks and tossed them down the hall.

"Ch-Chicas? Mangle? I need your help," he called uncertainly.

Several seconds later Toy Chi popped her head into his field of vision. Her voice trembled a little. "Yeah?"

* * *

Back in parts and service, Bonnie continued to pace around the small workroom. The the nauseating smell of old oil, grease, blood, and sweat hung in the air, and dark stains of various mysterious substances speckled the grimy floor tiles. The single bulb illuminating the room flickered every so often, giving it an even creepier ambiance.

Bonnie seemed to be cooling down a little. Which was good, as earlier, when he'd been shouting at them, sparks began to fly from his exposed wires, and some began to glow angrily, illuminating the old rabbit's exposed interior. "So, Fitzgerald. You finally end up getting your lucky break and what do you do first thing? Come right back. You know, when I judged you by your survival skills I thought you were pretty smart. I suppose that's why you should never judge a book by its cover. And you. Schmidt." He turned to face Mike and glowered at the man pinned down at his feet. Mike tried to keep a hard and unmoved face, but he couldn't hide a slight cringe—one out of anger, disgust, and a little bit of fear.

Bonnie laughed, a harsh burst of static laughter that made Jeremy's head throb. "Now _here's_ a face I never thought I'd see again. You missed me this much, eh? Now we can finally finish what you started so many years ago. I've waited for years for this moment, Schmidt, and my patience has finally paid off. Because now—" he snagged Mike by the arm "—I have you right where I want you. I'll bet you regret all of those insults now."

Mike feebly attempted to free himself from the rabbit's grasp. "Ah, no, actually, I don't think I do. Should I? It's not like it would've made much difference in the way you treated me."

"Still as rude and snarky as ever, I see. It's time to pay for your apparent lack of manners."

"Wait, wait, let me this straight—you're going to kill me for _name-calling?_ That's a joke! If memory serves, you tried to murder me!"

"AND I PAID FOR IT!" Mike looked up at him, taken off-guard by the sudden outburst. Bonnie stepped back and gestured to himself. "Look at me, Schmidt!" he snarled. "I'm stuck back here almost 24/7! I don't have my guitar to entertain with or kids to entertain; the two things most precious to me! And in case you haven't noticed, I'm being torn apart piece by piece, and somehow I'm still alive to endure the torture of it! You did this to me! You lied to them, to them all, and now I've lost everything but half of myself, and even that's leaving me! This is all your fault!"

"Bonnie, I . . . I'm really sorry, man. About all of this. I shouldn't have done all that I did." Mike turned to face his puzzled human friend, wearing a sheepish expression. "When I first started working at Fazbear's, the animatronics freaked me out so much I tried to get myself moved to the day shift. I started telling the staff and the owner of the location about how the animatronics behaved at night, sometimes—ah, usually—exaggerating quite a bit. I was willing to do anything to get transferred to the day shift. Of course I never got the new position, but the staff, namely the technicians and janitors that cleaned the animatronics, was scared enough to refuse to go near them. They became concerned about the safety of the public, and eventually they had the animatronics confined to the stage during the day. It was all my fault, and while I know it doesn't mean much anymore, all of you, I apologize for what I did. I can't expect any of you to forgive me, but I just want you to know—"

"Apology accepted," Chica announced as she entered the room.

Mike stared at the animatronic chicken, dumbfounded. "Uh, thanks, I guess. That was rather . . . abrupt, don't you think?"

"In all honesty, I'm just very relieved to see that our intruders aren't ones with hostile intentions—er, right?" She looked a little disturbed, until Jeremy reassured her that they weren't there to hurt anyone or anything.

Suddenly a short, scrawny human sporting a Freddy Fazbear Security uniform stumbled into the room, the much-too-large spare Freddy head wobbling about upon his shoulders. Toy Chica and Mangle brought up the rear of the little parade of oddities. Fritz glanced around the room nervously and fearfully brandished his flashlight.

Bonnie gave a harsh bark of laughter. "Night guard, you look like a fool. You are aware that the flashlight does nothing to us, and that mask makes you look nothing like Freddy?" Freddy nodded and shot Fritz an offended look, holding one of his great paws to his chest where, had he been a living being, his heart would've been. "The only reason we don't kill you when you're wearing it is to make it fair for you," Bonnie finished.

"S-so I can take it off? And you won't kill me?"

"Yes, I believe that's the point I just made."

Fritz removed the Freddy head and glared at the two other humans. "What the heck are you two doing here? Trying to get me fired already?"

Jeremy and Mike glanced at each other, both of them suddenly realizing they hadn't thought their plan all the way through.

"We, ah, we wanted to give you some pointers!"

"Uh, yeah, we wanted to make sure that you, you know, didn't die."

"Y-you did?" Fritz looked surprised, a bit of disbelief in his eyes. "Oh. Uh, well, thanks, I guess, but you really should've just called me, or told me before I left earlier! I mean, I called the cops, and you guys're gonna be in deep trouble with them. They'll be here any minute now!"

Jeremy paled, but Mike pressed his case a bit further. "Yeah, well, we just forgot to tell you before you left, and you aren't supposed to have your cell phone on during your shift."

"Oh, yeah? Says who?"

"It's in the employee handbook, Fritz."

After a brief silence, Mike sighed. "I swear, it's incredible how many guards on duty get addicted to Candy Crush."

* * *

"The place seems to be secure, Mr. Smith. Are you certain someone entered the building?"

Fritz offered the police officer a weak smile. "I, uh, I guess it could've b-been one of the animatronics that I saw on the camera. They move around at night, and I-I only saw a bit of movement on the camera."

The officer studied his face suspiciously for a moment, then let out a breath and shook his head. "I am aware of the animatronics, Mr. Smith. Geez, we get way too many calls from these Fazbear places at night 'cause of those darn robots. Tell your boss that they really should consider shutting those things down at closing before we take measures to ensure that happens. We're going to take the security tapes for reviewing, so be sure those tapes are replaced."

"Dev?" A second, younger officer approached Fritz and the officer he was speaking with.

"What is it, Officer Conrad?"

Officer Conrad gestured down the hallway at Fritz' office. "We gathered the tapes for you, sir. We packaged them and left them on the desk in the security office for you to retrieve."

The two policemen turned and started down the hall. Fritz, unsure of what to do, awkwardly followed them from behind, trying his hardest to appear nonchalant and bored, though on the inside he was groaning with despair. Jeremy and Mike were going to be discovered and jailed for sure, and he'd probably be charged for lying to the police and for harboring criminals. How frustrating it was, going to get arrested and fined for sticking up for two guys that he hardly considered friends, due to a place that consisted of murderous mascots, bratty kids, and minimum wage. Fritz had always hoped that he'd never get in trouble with the authorities, and if he did happen to do so it'd be for something crazy and worth the consequences. What a shame the job he'd been looking forward to was turning out to be!

"By the way," Officer Conrad said over his shoulder as they walked, "we found the security camera facing the stage is pretty busted up, and so was its tape. It'll need to be replaced for sure."

"Y-yeah, I noticed that too. Thanks." _Apparently Toy Freddy's catching a huge break,_ Fritz thought bitterly. If he and the two ex-night guards were going to be caught, it would've been a minor-yet-sweet victory if the police had found the bear in the middle of his little 'romancing.'

"Hey! What's going on here?" Officer Conrad quickly bore down on the small cardboard box that sat, unsealed, upon the desk next to the security tablet. "I taped that up myself just a minute ago!"

Officer Dev rolled his eyes. "Yes, well, boxes don't typically open themselves. No worries, Officer, we all make mistakes."

"No, sir, I swear that I did! Heck, just ask—SWEET BETSY! What on earth's that thing?" The terrified young man stumbled backwards and pointed at the tall, lanky, black-and-white animatronic that sat slumped against the wall. It powered on at the policeman's cry, and slowly got to its pointy feet, causing Officer Conrad to start and reach for the gun that rested in his belt holster.

Fritz gave a nervous laugh, withholding from panicking himself. What was it doing here? "Oh, th-that's just the Puppet. Hey, ol' p-pal!"

The mute animatronic eyed the humans, apparently taking no notice of the two handguns partially drawn from the officer's belts, and he slipped out of the office.

"That thing is darn spooky, it is!" The younger cop said. "I don't know how people manage to work here, especially at night. Ugh, gives me the creeps just thinking about it, and how they walk all over the place . . ." He turned and gave Fritz a sorrowful look and pat on the shoulder. "I'm sorry for you, man. Real sorry. Well, have a good night. And be a little more sure next time you think you need to call the police."

Back in Prize Corner, the Puppet stepped back into his present box and leaned back against its sturdy wall. He felt himself relaxing as the wireless music box was wound and the soothing musical tinkling resumed. He looked around, watching with mild interest as the other animatronics exited the stage and began to wander about the pizzeria again, and he half-heartedly picked at the sticky tape residue stuck on his long spindly fingers. It had been him who'd opened up the package containing the security camera footage tapes, and he'd used his magic to distort Mike's and Jeremy's faces from the recordings so they wouldn't get into trouble.

Although this guard was okay, he preferred Jeremy over him, and he hoped that he would assume his old position as night guard again. But at that moment he had to rest. He had a long day ahead of him. He reached over the side of his box and pulled the lid back into place and fell back into a deep slumber, his peaceful music filling his ears.

* * *

As soon as the police had all left Fritz rushed back to the parts and service room, and he helped Mike and Jeremy out of the two spare, _empty_ animatronic suits they'd hidden inside of, which had been Bonnie's brilliant idea.

"Ugh. There you go, Bonnie. You finally stuffed me into a suit. Are you satisfied now?"

Bonnie grabbed Mike and hoisted him out of the suit and onto the floor. "Hmm, I suppose so. Of course, you aren't dead, but I did stuff you, you're right about that."

After a few minutes of talking amongst each other and calming their nerves, Fritz ushered the humans out of the room and asked them to follow him to the office. "I have a few things to take care of," he explained, "and then I have to talk to Toy Freddy about some stuff."

The trio found their way through the maze of corridors and rooms to the office at last, where Fritz was astonished to find Toy Freddy searching frantically around. "Toy Freddy? What are you doing here?"

The animatronic bear looked up quickly, startled by the sudden stealthy entrance of the men, and heaved what sounded like a sigh of relief, though Fritz couldn't be sure. After all, animatronics don't have lungs, but it sounded close to a sigh, so that's what Fritz interpreted the sound to be. "There you are, kid," Toy Freddy said. Though no one could be sure, he almost sounded happy to see the young guard. "Are you okay? Have the burglars been taken care of? The others are all fine, right?" He seemed to take no notice of Mike and Jeremy, who stood awkwardly a few feet away, inside the entrance to the office.

"Yeah, everyone's fine, don't worry about them. I am, too, thanks," he added, puzzled at the bear's concern towards him. It was strange: when he'd introduced himself to Fritz earlier he hadn't seemed to care at all about him; now he seemed to actually want to make sure he was all right. It was strange, for sure—but he didn't mind it a bit. It was nice to have someone care about how he was doing. "And the burglars, well, here they are." He took a step to the side and put Mike and Jeremy in the spotlight. The two said men immediately stopped arguing with each other and stood up respectfully.

Toy Freddy was shocked at the familiar face standing before him. "Mr. Fitzgerald? _You_ broke in? What are you doing here?" He paused, then chuckled a bit. "You know, I do believe you're the first night guard that quit to ever return here. Funny, in its own little way."

Jeremy waved a little. "Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. Now, in all fairness, the whole breaking-and-entering thing was Mike's idea—" he jabbed his thumb in Mike's direction "—but I had to do it. I owe a girl a dance. Where's Mangle? Have you guys already started the dance?"

"Uh, dance?" Fritz asked, confused. He looked from human to animatronic. "How can there be a dance tonight? Look at the clock?" He pointed up at the clock, ticking away from the office wall. It read 5:54. "My testing took up all of tonight. Do you want me to help you reschedule it or something? I guess it was kind of my fault you missed it, since tonight was—"

"Oh, but it's only the _testing_ _clock_ that says it's 5:54!" Everyone's heads turned to find the owner of this new voice—TB. The blue rabbit skipped down the hall all the way into the office, and he settled next to his animatronic friend, grinning mischievously. "See, that clock is rigged to make a _single_ hour look like _six_ of them. Neat, huh?"

Toy Freddy gave TB a light smack on the head and rolled his eyes. "And by 'rigged' he means malfunctioned. It's broken, but we salvaged it from the trash before the humans could take it away. It serves its purpose. Now as for Mangle—MANGLE! Sweetheart, I have a surprise for you in the office!" He shot Jeremy a wink and a grin.

 _He sure has changed his view on me,_ Jeremy thought with surprise, not to mention a hint of suspicion. What had happened to Toy Freddy that had made him change his perspective on night guards—and adults in general, for that matter? He recalled overhearing two employees' conversation several months before about how the animatronics didn't seem to care much for adults, even almost appearing to be aggressive towards them. It was a strange development, but a good one nonetheless.

A few minutes later a metallic clanging reverberate throughout the office, and a familiar battered vixen appeared in the hallway, and leapt down from the ceiling. "Yes, Freddy?"

With a smile the bear gestured towards Jeremy, who stepped into her view from behind Mike and Fritz. "Jeremy . . ."

She scrambled into Jeremy's outspread arms, and he embraced her tightly, not wanting to ever let her go again. "Happy Valentine's Day, Love."

X TWENTY MINUTES LATER X

Back in the main party room, where everyone had gathered to go over the rest of the night's schedule, Shadow Bonnie hovered in the center of the room, watching the group converse. He couldn't help but giggle and warmly smile as he watched the human and animatronic lovers that'd been reunited only minutes ago. He wasn't interested in a romance for himself, but he loved watching young lovers together; it gave him feel good inside _for_ them. It made him happy to see love in such a dark world.

Suddenly Toy Freddy began to turn in his direction, and he quickly teleported away and out of sight. Toy Freddy never seemed to like him or his brother, Shadow Freddy, so to avoid any conflict they avoided the Toy animatronics; the older models never minded chatting with them.

Shadow Bonnie teleported to the kitchen, where Shadow Freddy, commonly referred to as Shadow, was hard at work cooking and baking refreshments for the Valentine's Day party. "Hey! Hey, Shadow! Guess what? So the party starts in about five minutes, but that isn't even the best part! Wanna know what the best part is?"

"Well, knowing you won't shut up about whatever it is until you share it with me, then go ahead and tell me now," Shadow growled, shedding the pink-and-white oven mitts to remove his matching chef's hat.

"Okay! So you remember how that old night guard, Jeremy Fitzgerald? And how he got fired, or quit or something like that? And how before he was fired he was in love with Miss Mangle? So apparently it was Jeremy Fitzgerald and his best friend Schmidt that broke into this restaurant, and get this—they broke in _just_ so that Jeremy could dance with Miss Mangle tonight! Can you believe that, Shadow? Huh? Isn't that romantic? Hey, you know, you should make something special to celebrate! Some brownies, or cupcakes, or—oh, I know! You have to make your world-famous triple-chocolate peanut-butter white-chocolate frosted fudge!"

Shadow shot his brother an annoyed glance as he struggled to untie the dirty, flour-coated pink-and-white apron. "Abbey, it's obvious you just want the fudge. Even if I wanted to make it I wouldn't have the time to, not to mention the fact that it isn't even Valentine-themed."

"You could put little heart-shaped sprinkles on it!" the rabbit remarked after a few seconds of deep thought.

"And let you ingest even more sugar? Absolutely not. Now, go start up the party while I get this stuff put in place."

* * *

". . . and so I just told him that I wasn't going to take his minimum wage salary anymore, and I told him that after tonight I was done. _After tonight_ , meaning I would've taken the shift, but instead the jerk decides to throw in some poor kid with no training or knowledge of the place. He didn't even tell me that he'd assigned someone else to the shift! But I'm really, really sorry for quitting, I didn't mean to do it. I wasn't thinking at all, and I hope you can forgive me."

Mangle rested a hand on Jeremy's shoulder. "Of course I forgive you, Jeremy. All you did was make a little mistake, just like everyone else does, but you, unlike many others, owned up to your error and asked for forgiveness. That makes it different, and in the best way. And do you really think that I would hate you for that, especially after all that you've done to get here tonight to tell me what's been going on and to keep your promise?"

Jeremy grinned and reached behind his back. "I guess not. But just as a little peace offering . . ."

"Daisies!" Mangle gasped, joyfully accepting the bouquet of beautiful white flowers. "Thank you very much, and you're forgiven."

Jeremy threw Mike a smug look, to which Mike replied with a mocking expression that succeeded in doing nothing but cracking TB up. The man turned red, then turned and stalked off to parts and service to hang out with the old animatronics.

Fritz watched him leave with mild amusement. "You know, you could take my place, Jere. Heck, if I wasn't broke I'd pay you to take this job so I could go back to the day shift! 'Course, I'm probably going to get fired after all that's happened tonight, so you'll most likely have your chance."

Jeremy raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, and Mike and I are probably going to get arrested, so I won't count on it."

"I guess that's true. So maybe you could—" Suddenly multi-colored lights began to flash all around the room, and loud metal music blared from the speaker system.

"ABBEY! WRONG PLAYLIST!"

A moment later the music changed to a soft, melodic tune, the lights slowly faded into a blend between white and pink (romantically), and Shadow Freddy appeared out of nowhere onto the stage, floating a few inches off of the ground. "Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!" he exclaimed, his voice resounding throughout the pizzeria as though he was speaking through a megaphone. "Now let the party begin!"

A few hours later the party was raging. Mike and the old animatronics had been drawn out by the shouts of delight, the hypnotic music, and the smell of Shadow's delicious appetizers and deserts. Then TB managed to start a dance-off, where he convinced the Shadows to switch over to some faster dance music and taunted a few other animatronics until they angrily accepted his challenge to a dance-off. It started out as single dancers, but after a while the couples stole the dance floor and forced Shadow to change the fast-paced music back to the "correct" music, much to TB's dismay. It turned out Jeremy and Toy Freddy were both very talented dancers, both solo and with a partner, and out of every dancer there they immediately became the most popular ones. Mike and a few other animatronics claimed they preferred the more upbeat music, and they created a separate party in the smaller party rooms using Mike's phone.

Eventually everyone, including Mike and those who'd joined him, was ready for some slow dancing with their friends. Of course, TB, Fritz, and all of the male old animatronics, the ones that "simply couldn't dance at all," and "were too embarrassed to dance in front of other people," sat out. That is, until Mike asked old Chica to dance with him, and she suddenly received four more dance requests. She laughed and accepted them all—but, to the animatronics' disappointment, Mike got the first dance, because he asked first. They moped back over to one of the tables, muttering about how Mike had become a marked man and that they vowed to kill him one day. TB and Fritz spent the entire time from this point onwards stuffing themselves with food and chatting. Jeremy couldn't help but think that they went well together.

After several short hours of great fun, eating, dancing, silly fun and laughter, mingling, and talking, only five minutes remained of the party. Shadow announced that one final song would be played, meant especially and only for the couples. Everyone shuffled off of the stage except for Toy Chi and Toy Freddy, along with Mangle and Jeremy. Jeremy and Mangle stood in the center of the stage, and Jeremy grinned as he watched Chica exchange harsh, inaudible words with Bonnie. Jeremy turned at a tapping on his shoulder from behind. "Oh! Uh, what's up, Toy Freddy?"

Toy Freddy gave him a sheepish smile. "You're in my spot; I always take the center of the stage. Do you mind?"

"Uh, no, sure, go right ahead." He took Mangle by the hand and guided her a few feet to the left. A moment later he felt another tapping on his shoulder. "Uuuh . . . Yeah, Toy Freddy?"

The orangish-brown bear grinned a full-fledged grin. "I lied to Mr. Smith. How perceptive is the boy?"

"I don't know, pretty perceptive? He's staring right at us, so do whatever you plan on doing."

Toy Freddy straightened, made sure he had Fritz' attention, winked at him, and pulled Toy Chi into his arms for a lingering, passionate kiss.

As the generic romance music commenced, the couples began to dance, taking their time in their loving partners' arms and enjoying every second of it. Chica and Fritz watched from the seating below in awe and some remorse, while the Mike and the other animatronics paid little attention to the stage, and chatted amongst themselves. Shadow Bonnie observed the dancing from the DJ booth set up in the back of the room, his lower lip trembling and eyes watering with black, magical fluid—"It's so beautiful!"—while Shadow focused himself on not smacking his brother out of pure annoyance.

Up on the stage, Toy Freddy couldn't think of anyplace, anytime, or any event that could even be considered as wonderful as the moment he was living right then. Sure, he remembered when he first fell in love with Toy Chi, the day she confessed her love for him, their first kiss, but none of those times compared to dancing with her that Valentine's Day night. There was something special about that night—one could almost taste the love in the air. That might've been the reason TB was gagging, but that was okay. He didn't need to understand the concept of true love.

He looked down upon Toy Chi's glowing smile, sensing her joyfulness. He felt sure she, too, didn't want the night to ever end. "I love you, Dearest."

She giggled softly and pulled him closer to herself. "I love you too."

Jeremy enjoyed dancing, and he loved Mangle. So putting the two together was pure bliss. As he and Mangle gazed into one another's eyes, he suddenly realized, with much sorrow, that the night, as wonderful and beautiful as it was, would not last forever, and he still had a few items on his to-do list that needed to get crossed off before the song—and the perfect moment—was gone. He smoothly reached behind himself and pulled out a bunch of snow-white roses (don't ask where from exactly, it's just a story, people. Chill) and he handed them to Mangle. "Here you are, Mangle. These are for you."

"My favorite! Oh, thank you so much! Jeremy, you're just full of surprises tonight, aren't you?"

The young man grinned. "It's my pleasure. And if that wasn't enough, I have two more surprises for you. One, I officially work here again starting Monday night, two nights from now. With a raise, even! Six dollars an hour now!"

"Jeremy, that's fantastic!" Mangle said in a hushed exclamation of happiness. "I'm so excited for you! And the second surprise is?"

Perfect timing, Jeremy thought to himself as the song came to a woeful close. "This." And with a single graceful movement he swung her down in a beautiful dip, and kissed her, the conclusion to the perfect night.

 **Author's Note**

 **And there we have it! The end of Ladies' Night on Valentine's Day! I hope you all enjoyed this story, I know I sure had fun writing it! And to any of you that enjoyed this story and think that maybe, just maybe, I have some talent, then maybe you could go ahead and follow me! I have several completed stories that I just have to digitize, and I'll post my progress in the process. Say that ten times fast, whew! I feel like I should say more, but I can't think of anything else important to say. And yes, I'm very aware that I just used way too many exclamation points, and the writer part of me is screaming in my face about it, but I'm just so excited! (Great, there I go again.) But anyways, like I said a moment ago, I hope you all liked this story! I'd love to hear from you, so don't hesitate to review! Also, what do you all think of me doing a song spotlight at the end of the chapters I upload? I always thought it was cool when favorite authors of mine did that, and I'd like to know whether or not you guys would like to see me do it as well! Get to know some of my favorite songs, you know? Yeah. That's cool.**

 **Right?**

 **Okay.**

 **Yeah.**

 **Just me.**

 **Bye.**


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